NEW DELHI, July 19:
The Government today said the Inter Government Agreement and the offset contract for the multi-billion Euro Rafale fighter jet deal is yet to be finalised.
In a written reply to Rajya Sabha, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said details including transfer of technology through offsets will emerge after the negotiations are completed.
“The negotiations are underway and IGA and offset contract are yet to be finalized,” he said.
The Minister said 36 aircraft being procured will have advanced features like Advanced Electronically Scanned Array Radar, mid-air refuelling and advanced electronic warfare equipment as part of its design.
According to defence sources, the deal is estimated to be around 7.89 billion Euros.
The price was brought down from nearly 10 billion Euros, as sought initially, due to various reasons, including the discount offered by the French government and reworking of some of the criteria.
The deal comes with the clause of delivering 50 per cent offsets, creating business worth at least 3 billion Euros for smaller Indian companies and creating thousands of new jobs in India through the offsets.
Meanwhile in another reply, Parrikar said 18 more Tejas aircraft in IOC (Initial Operation Clearance) standard are planned for induction by 2018-19, besides the two already inducted.
This would be followed by 20 more aircraft in Final Operation Configuration (FOC) standard, which are planned for induction from year 2019.
The total expenditure incurred on development of Tejas LCA Mk-I aircraft, as on June 30 is Rs 8042.46 crore, he said.
The total initial sanctioned cost for Full Scale Engineering Development (FSED) for LCA was Rs 5489.78 crore which was later escalated to Rs 9121.07 crore.
The indigenous content of LCA is about 70 per cent and import content is about 30 per cent. The aircraft is indigenously designed and developed and the technology for production of this aircraft is available in the country.
LCA Tejas shall be an important part of IAF’s fighter aircraft inventory filling up the lightweight category of fighters and shall be effectively used for air defence and for battlefield air strikes, Parrikar said. (PTI)
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